ITunes Interview: Plastic Beach
The script of the Itunes interview featuring 2-D and Murdoc from the ITunes Session. Script Interviewer: So guys, tell us how the band met and form the Gorillaz. Murdoc: (Coughs) eh... Oh hang on, hair. I got hair in me throat up hair. Oh dear, oh dear my head feels very sticky today. Too much ghost wine last night. I did' I didn't knew if you tried that stuff, but its like drinking shots of watching up liquid mixed with paint stripper Ya-er. Sounds like a good idea at the time, but you do pay Daley in the morning. Any way, right, yes, um. How did Gorillaz form. Well' um... I guess this line up first came together around 1998 You-oh. Cause I put loads of bands together before that. Great bands Yeah, all of them... should've been enormous. Eh, What did you have, you had the eh... The Burning Sations, Durango 95, Kissing Makeup, Wild Willie Wally and the Wallintons, I was the singer in all those bands, great stuff eh. 2-D: Dear Lord. Murdoc: Anyway, any one of them could've been as big as Gorillaz. But you know eventually, I thought it might be time to try a different vocalist other than me. 2-D: yeh..uh... someone who could actually sing maybe? Murdoc: Shut it twerp! See, eh...technically uh, my voice obviously is still much, much better then 2D's. But... yeah I just thought it was time for a change, change of texture. So (coughs) what happened was I was ah I was out one day on, a on... a nicking spree a, hoisting recall it yeah eh..on the rob. 2-D: August 15, 1997. First time we met? Murdoc: Yeah like I said I was out, I was out robbing on a nicking spree yeah, right? And what I had in mind, was to crash my car through the front window of this music shop. "Uncle Norms Keyboard Emporium" it was called. It was the local shop basically and sold all the keyboards and... what I thought was I would just crash throught the front, and then steal the bunch of keyboards. You know, form a new band. 2-D: It was the shop I was working in. Murdoc: So... I crashed the car through the window and it landed straaaight in 2D's head. Amazing direct hit. Knock one of his eyes straight out, put him in a coma immediately. I got arrested for that, you know and ah... community service my SENTENCE, was to look after this silly sod. 2-D: I don't know what I did wrong. Murdoc:''' '''Obviously I abused that position and took the opportunity to bully him to within an inch of his catatonic life. So, one time when we were mucking about in a car park in Nottingham, 2-D actually went through the windscreen! I think it was that second car accident that actually brought him back ‘round, cause it knocked his other stupid eye out. But I’ll tell you what, when he stood up WOW! What an image; tall, pretty, blue spiky hair… 2-D: No eyeballs. Murdoc: No eyeballs. I knew that he had to be the front man. After that, everything sort of just fell into place, y’know. I found Russel, our drummer working in a record shop; “Big Rick Black’s Record Shack” in Soho. Everyone had heard of Russel because he knew everything there was to know about hip-hop. He was the Rhythm King and also he was possessed by the undead ghostly spirit of his dead friend, Del. Good drummer too. So I kidnapped him and took him over to Kong Studios which was our headquarters; our isolated recording studio HQ at the time… 2-D: Yeah, all we needed right was a guitarist. We did have one, Paula… Murdoc: BUT SHE WAS RUBBISH!!! So we advertised for another. We stuck an ad in the music paper, NME. I can’t remember what exactly what we wrote. I just know it stated, “no hippies.” 2-D: Moments later there was a knock on the door and there was this FedEx crate outside. Murdoc: Nothing more. No one there. Just a crate. 2-D: We opened it up… Murdoc: And inside was Noodle, our guitarist. WE WERE A BAND!!! We changed our name to Gorillaz there and then and the rest is history. Any way you should obviously know all this. It’s all in “Rise of the Ogre” the Gorillaz autobiography. Best book I’ve ever written. (Well, only book I’ve ever written.) Came out a couple of years ago and you know what? I think I’ll re-release it now. Maybe even update it. It’s a fantastic tale. It’s better than Wordsworth. It should be compulsory in schools. 2-D: I haven’t even read it. Murdoc: Neither have I. So yeah Gorillaz, that’s how we formed. It’s important to get a name right though isn’t it? I had this one band called “This Show Has Been Cancelled” and no one ever came to see us. Pointless really so we split up. We did reform briefly about a month later under the name, “We Have Split Up.” But yeah, well, again it was just a waste of time. 2-D: You’re an idiot. Murdoc: SHUT YOUR FACE! Interviewer: And who or what are your individual musical influences and how do they differ from the group’s influences? Murdoc: Oh, well, uh, you know, it’s all kind of changed now…over the years. There wasn’t nearly so much of it when I was growing up. 2D: He was born a long time ago. Murdoc: I was, uh, basically into metal, you know? All kinds of metal. Hair metal, death metal, precious metal, heavy metal, scrap metal. Bands like Tygers of Pan Tang, Poison, Ratt, Dio, Twisted Sister, Cinderella. 2D: I hate all that stuff. For me it was bands like The Jam, Wire, Buzzcocks, uh, Magazine, Ultravox, Talking Heads. I loved all the punk stuff, and The Human League. Scott Walker, I liked. Murdoc: Yeah, yeah, he’s good. 2D: Now, I don’t know, it’s all over the place. I get sent tapes through the post. Murdoc: Tapes, really? 2D: Yeah! Tapes. Murdoc: Through the post? 2D: Yeah. Murdoc: That’s very odd. I didn’t think they made tapes anymore. They don’t email you a link or something? 2D: No. Tapes through the post. To Plastic Beach. Murdoc: Over the years, though, my taste has changed, you know, or developed. Cause there’s loads of stuff. I mean you can see it if you check out who I get to play on our albums, you know, like, Ike Turner, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, British rappers like Bashy and Kano, Roots Manuva. 2D: Russel got us all into a lot of the hip hop stuff, you know? He was into old school stuff like ESG, Kool Herc, Trouble Funk, Sly and the Family Stone, Zapp. Murdoc: And I recorded some stuff with Omar Souleyman over in Beirut last year. And we’ve obviously done loads of stuff with the National Orchestra for Arabic Music, and Cerebral Ballzy I like. I mean if you just want me to list stuff, I can, I can just go…Tom Tom Club, Sparks, New York Dolls, XTC, Johnny Cash, Leadbelly, Yo Majesty, Love, Kinks, Son House, Tito Puente, Photek, Cheap Trick. 2D: Salt-N-Pepa Murdoc: Sonic Youth, Clash, Hendrix, Quincy Jones, Skatalites, Aphrodite’s Child, The Congos, Fun Boy Three, Sun Ra. 2D: Chaka Demus Murdoc: Sex Gang Children, Lalo Schifrin, Wendy Carlos, Augustus Pablo, Fela Kuti. Look, in one way or another, by hook or by crook, we’ve ended up working with loads of people that we’re into. They all sort of end up in the family. Gorillaz is like a flophouse for legends. 2D: Collectively, yeah, I’d say we’ve, like, covered most bases. Although Russel’s been missing now for years, yeah, eh since we’ve played the New York Harlem Apollo 2006. Murdoc: And Noodle, too. I haven’t seen her since the El Mañana video shoot. I had to build a cyborg out of her from the DNA I scraped out from the crash site when she got shot outta the sky. Cyborg plays a lot of guitar on the album. It came out very well! But, eh, the original Noodle…well, one can only hope that she returns. Still, I saw some footage of her with a mask on recently. It got used actually in our, uh, Melancholy Hill video, so I think she’s safe. She might even be on her way back to us. To Plastic Beach, you know, who knows? Interviewer: So guys how did you both begin playing music and what was your first musical instrument? 2D: For me it was keyboards. Any keyboards really. My dad, right, he used to find stuff in junk shops and he even customized them for me. I had a Casio VL Tone which I used to take everywhere with me. It looks a bit like a melodica, uh, which was another instrument I loved. Still do. But, you know, keyboards was the thing that I loved. Stylophones, moogs, synths, electronic stuff, anything that makes a ‘bloopy’ noise. Uh, I was a bit like Brian Eno. Murdoc: Only without the talent or brains. 2D: Sod off, you old goff. Murdoc: Right, that’s it! noises and glass breaking screaming and grunting 2D: Ah, flippin’ ‘eck! Murdoc: *clears throat* Yes, now where were we? Oh yeah, yeah, instruments. Well, everyone knows that, uh, bass is best, you know? It’s heavy, sexy, and you can rattle the bowels of the Earth with it. The one I use today is named El Diablo. It was given to me by Beelzebub, the king of the Underworld himself, as a present, when I signed my eternal contract with him. I gave him my soul, and he promised to make Gorillaz the biggest band the world has ever seen. So, yeah. It’s all working out rather nicely, really, isn’t it? 2D: Although you can’t really play it, so we keep having to bring in extra bass players. and Murdoc grunting Interviewer: Now, Murdoc, it’s been known that you’ve developed some issues with 2D over the years. How do you create music with 2D if you can’t even stand to be near him? Your bio in the Gorillaz website states that you hate 2D, and 2D also idolizes you Murdoc. So tell me. Tell me a bit about that. Murdoc: Well, I admit, it’s not plain sailing, I mean look at him. He’s got, well, special needs. But, for me, music is the ultimate goal. Something that you have to rise above petty differences in order to achieve. The greater good. And he does have a very special voice. Voice of an “angle.” 2D: You can’t do without me, simple as that. You’d still be living in a Winnebago in Stoke if I wasn’t singing. Knocking off barmaids on a Friday night if you were lucky. Murdoc: And even if he is like dealing with some former mental case, I still think it’s worth it in the end. And I guess it helps that he’s always looked up to me as a kind of father figure. 2D: In your dreams, Pedro. Murdoc: And also, I understand it’s not very gentlemanly to point out that our first guitarist, the one before Noodle, was a girl called Paula Cracker. She was 2D’s girlfriend, uh, who I had a, uh, rather lovely altercation with in the toilets at Kong Studios. chuckling more glass breaking screaming, panting, grunting grunting 2D: No, no you can’t pull that. Ow! For the love of, AH! *haha, more fighting noises* 2D: Stop it, stop it, get off! softly choking Murdoc: Sit back down, that’s it, like a good boy. Let’s finish this interview, shall we? Just breath into this rag, yeah? Deep breaths, big gulps….yeah, there we go. All better now. Shall we continue? And, um, you know, I think it might be a good idea to direct the next question at me, not him. Interviewer: And 2D, you were introduced to the Free Tibet campaign by Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys, and have been an avid supporter of the Free TIbet campaign ever since. Describe what this campaign means to you and how you hope to raise awareness with your music. 2D: throat Uh, I think, uh… Murdoc: Don’t ask him anything serious, you just get a load of rubbish falling out of his trap. 2D: Yeah, uh, the Free Tibet campaign was something that a lot of people threw their weight behind, I mean, I think it’s important to lend your position to-- Murdoc: But you gotta ask yourself, haven’t you? I mean, how much trouble are these people in if they need 2D? You know? An animated singer from a western pop band as a spokesperson for their cause? 2D: I think it’s important for each and every person to have the liberty and the freedom to live their lives how they choose to without the interjection and repression from heavy handed authorities. It’s about basic human rights, really. Murdoc: He doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, though. Do bear that in mind. Interviewer: You know what guys? I’ve always loved the song Clint Eastwood, but could never figure out what it’s about. What is the song about, I mean…what inspired the song’s title? Murdoc: Oh you know. Melancholy, hope, and sweet sweet dubby reggae. That was one of the first tracks I wrote for this band. Instant hit. You know, it’s all built up around my deep, twangy bass. That and, uh, a little button marked ‘Reggae Setting’ on my, uh, Honda Zedd Chord Hit Making Machine. 2D: With the lyrics…well it’s not actual sunshine, you know. I don’t have sunshine in an actual bag, you know. I’m not even sure that’s possible, uh. I’d have to check with someone like Stephen Hawkings on that. Uh, I did have a bag though, but it wasn’t actually sunshine inside the bag. It was some old gym clothes and some shoes and a paperback. Murdoc: Oh, Chr — we finished the track off at, uh, Geejam Studios in Jamaica in about April, May 2000. Blimey, though, it was over ten years ago, now. That track’s still a monster. It’s actually like a big clean inky canvas for rappers of all sized to come paint their rhymes onto. That one’s had raps by Del the Ghost Rapper, Si and Life from Phi Life Cypher, Tinie Tempah’s had a crack at it. Eh, Snoop Dogg at Glastonbury, Bashy and Kano did a version, and uh Eslam Jawaad, ah threw his set into the mix recently in Syria in, uh, Damascus. This show we did at the citadel. It’s a truly continental cut that Clint Eastwood song. A frequent flyer. 2D: We call it Clint Eastwood because it had a kind of Ennio Morricone feel to the melodica line. Like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or something. So we went with that as a theme, and also calling it Clint Eastwood had a kind of old reggae vibe to the name. Murdoc: I’m not sure why you’re actually still talking here. I mean, you had nothing to do with that track other than singing my lyrics. 2D: The version that the Gorillaz Live band are now doing is great. Ah, very heavy, you know? Paul Simonon’s bass is way better, way heavier, than the original now. In fact we should record it with the proper bass on there, instead of that codham fisted clumping you do. thud Category:Transcripts Category:Interviews